Good morning, peeps, and welcome to OK Daily with Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks, you know, as we take this long march, the ten months it is going to take to get to election day, there is so much, so much that is going to happen. There is so much that is going to test our faith,
to test our perseverance, to test our sanity. And I cannot express enough how important it is going to be to take care of yourself on a daily basis, to whatever that looks like right, to take care of those around you, to check in with people. How are you feeling, How is your heart? How is your energy?
Right?
Not just the how are you? Oh, I'm fine, and keep moving on, because to be honest, folks, none of us are fucking fine. All of us are dealing and reeling from a lot. That's why rest is important, but continued conversation is really important. And that's why today I'm really excited and happy to welcome back to wokf Veronicor, who is the executive director of the AAPI Victory Alliance.
Why I'm excited to welcome him back is because we get into a conversation of course, about the AAPI community and where he believes the most important issue to lie and how they have changed over the course of the last election, but also why this younger demographic in terms of how it is, you know, measured against the black community,
the LATINX community and others. How twenty twenty was really the first time that this community, this very diverse, big community of twenty four million people showed up for the first time, and will they show up again in twenty twenty four and if so, for who, and if so why so Varun and I get into a deep conversation about what the stakes are, what his fears are, because let us not forget what the Trump administry and Donald Trump said and did during the beginning of COVID while
trying to pinpoint what would be a global pandemic on one demographic, and how the violence against that community escalated to numbers that they had not seen. And so what happens to the AAPI community if another Trump administration were to happen. So while we plan right for while we
expect the best, we plan for the worst. So Veron and I get into a really honest conversation about how his organization is planning and how AAPI Victory Aligned is talking about the existential threat that MAGA supremacy poses to
the AAPI community and the country at large. Folks, I am very happy and excited to welcome back in this new year, Executive Director of AAPI Victory Alliance, Varun nekur to wokf and Varun, I want to start out with you know, it was funny I was looking through your statement for twenty twenty three as you close out the year, and it said, you know, off years are supposed to be like quiet years, like we're just supposed to you know, be able to breathe through them, and it just be
in preparation for the next election cycle. And that is not at all what twenty twenty three, or frankly any of the years have felt like as of late. And so I wanted to give you an opportunity to tell us, you know, how you felt, you know, as you had time, you know, in a course of reflection of the last year of closing down twenty twenty three.
Yeah, thank you and great to be with you Danielle again, and a pleasure to speak to you and your your fantastic audience. It was a year of consternation, right, I mean, there was so many cross curnts happening, not only in the United States, but geopolitically, right, I mean, right, we hit the anniversary of the Ukraine War, we had another unfortunate milestone in the attacks in Israel and the resulting war in Gaza, and it's pervading, I think in our
domestic politics today. Certainly, I think that's a concern of a lot out of a lot of people, but primarily a lot of younger people that we rely on as our core base on the left. And then, of course, you know, I think too looking at how the Republicans are getting prepped for their primary in a matter of one week, the Iowa caucuses, and then shortly thereafter the other successive you know, primaries and caucuses. So we're kind of getting a glimpse, if you will, of what's ahead.
And I think as we looked at twenty twenty three, right, which you know, as you mentioned, was supposed to be the down year. It was supposed to be the year that you could perhaps take a little bit of a breather because you knew twenty four was going to be busy the presidential year. It really wasn't because we you know, at least organizers like me, executive directors who run organizations
like my like mine. You know, we all know what's really ahead, and we felt I think, you know, I don't want to speak for everyone, but I feel like we were all very much in preparation mode, knowing that we know the boogeyman that Donald Trump is because we had four years of him, and we know we don't want to go back. And yet in some ways we feel like there's a lot of ground that we have
to retread, right, we have to write. We didn't think we would have to necessarily motivate our own core base to the extent that we're looking at all the pulling and saying, oh my gosh, yeah, we haven't done a great job with black people. We haven't done it. You know, there's still a lot of work to do with with latinos Asians. You know, we're sort of the new kid
on the block, if you will. In terms of the twenty twenty election, you know, it was sort of in some ways our coming out ceremony from the perspective of there was fifty percent of all the voters in twenty twenty in the API realm. We're first time voters, right, so we're looking at next year saying, wow, we we have a lot of work to do with our own days. Yeah, that doesn't even speak to you know, how most elections are decided, which are folks in the middle, the so
called persuadable voters. That's not even talking about the persuadable voters, right, So we have to shore up our base, which means we have to do a better job speaking about how you know, there's a lot of negatives about the economy. Certainly, inflation is still too high, but we've seen it coming down.
Gas prices are coming down. But I think we on the left haven't done a really great job in speaking about economic populism in a way that that's really gaining any traction with younger people and even the middle class folks that you know, live paycheck to page, people who now have to restart paying their student loans. We've done a good job, and I don't know why, I mean, why are we having these conversations every two years, every four years? Wow, you know, we really suck at this
and we get to a better job. But we obviously do right because we're looking at the pony. We're looking at the data and it's all pointing in the same direction. So we have a lot of work to do before we even get into the main center of the fight, which is fighting for those you know, three to five percent of people in the middle. Just imagine we're going to spend about four billion dollars on this election to
speak to that three to five percent in the middle. Yeah, and so we got a lot of work to do. And I think we're we're a lot smarter than we were at this point in time four years ago, eight years ago. But I think at least this time we've got a lot more clarity about the fight ahead versus we were really shocked in surprise when we woke up on you know, election day eight years ago when Donald Trump got elected.
You know, I want to talk for a minute about the stat that you mentioned with regard to fifty percent of the AAPI voters in twenty twenty were first time voters. And you know what prompted folks for the first time to decide to go into the voting boots. And do you suspect that there is still energy there for them to return four years later?
That is the big question. I mean, you hit the
nail on the head. And I think the only evidence that we have that perhaps there is a little bit more gas in the tank is the fact that we looked at all these elections in states prior to today, the Virginia election in most recently last year, where we were able to flip the state House in Virginia and so and then you looked at all the elections where abortion was on the ballot, and the anecdotal data from those elections in Ohio, in Kansas, all those other states point
to continued enthusiasm at least on this issue. Right. But that being said, there's probably more that we still don't know about what drives the API community. And that's why at least you know, as we look forward in planning
about next year. For next year, we I think we can point to some other issues like gun violence, which is now ticked up the ranks in terms of priority for not only our community, but others that I think we have to speak to not only our community but all communities that this is not necessarily going to be a single issue election, right that if we had a little bit of tactical diversity in how we campaign next year, that perhaps we can achieve gains that not only get
us certain levels of win at the top of the ballot, but where we really need them to have a strong democracy, and that's in the bottom of the ballot, right. That's why state ledge races, city council races, court circuit court races. These are all like the bedrock of our society, in our democracy, and we can't let our foot off the
gas there more than anywhere. And that's unfortunately the areas of our electoral politics that get the least amount of attention until it's late in the process, they get the least amount of money. They're not as sexy because it's not for Congress, it's not for Senate, it's not for
the presidency. And so one of the things that we looked at as we were doing all this planning and preparing in twenty twenty three was how do we develop a strategy such that if we were to lose at the top, if we were to lose the Senate, if we were to lose the White House at the very least, where could we get some gains that could be our insurance policy, and that is in the states. So we looked at states that where perhaps we can flip a state Senate or a state you know, house to delegates.
Arizona is a great case where if we you know, we're close, we're in a deficit, but we're close to perhaps knocking off some incumbents that could turn the tide for us, and that could preserve Arizona as a state that you know, you know has for example, reproductive freedoms you know, cemented in their state constitution. Right. So we looked at all those states when we were developing our campaign plan, and it's really more bottom up focused than
it is top down. We'll have plenty of time to talk about Joe Biden, We'll have plenty of time to talk about federal races. They're not going to starve if we don't help them directly today. But where we need the most attention is on those lower rungs of the ladder because there's not as much attention paid. They're not household names people can't name, oftentimes as their local state center. Right. So that's really what we're trying to do.
You know, I wonder too, because you had brought up the wins that we had seen, particularly around those states that put up amendments around abortion right that abortion, you know, outside of what Democrats have believed for decades, is actually a very key issue for more than half of the popular And I wonder how you find, as you're listing out the priorities in gun violence having ticked back up, where you see the AAPI community as it relates to abortion.
And just recently, you know, you have Missouri Republicans coming out and proposing legislation that will most likely pass to have the death penalty for as an option for women who who go and get reproductive care who have an abortion outside of you know, outside of their of their state lines. And so I wonder how that issue plays and where it is in your list of priorities.
I mean, we're we're we're not a reproductive rights organization because we we want you know, women led organizations and organizations that have this on the front burners. So we often follow their lead and take their their advice in terms of how to message. But that being said, we still have to independently kind of track the nature of this issue given its huge salience since the Dobbs decision.
And we know two things. One, we know it's a turnout issue, but we need a lot more research into the sub demographics within the AAPI community that make up this large you know, Frankenstein of a term AAPI, Right, we didn't invent it, right, it was some white guy in the census. I asked, who probably came up with this term? This term. But once again, when the term was made up in the seventies, there was only one
million AAPIs. And now we're twenty four million. We are the fastest growing you know stats I think a lot
of your listeners already know of. And so that being said, there are like, for example, to kind of get into a little bit more nuanced but also to bring home the point that we're not this monolith, which is, we need to know how a sixty year old, for example, first generation Filipino American immigrant feels about abortion because we know that the Filipino community is very highly religious and highly Catholic, right, and so but we need to know
what messages perhaps we could persuade that that person versus a twenty four year old second generation Korean American male. Let's say, right, and you think about it. We you know, we've got six plus major ethnicities that make up the API community. They make up about eighty five percent of all the APIs in this country, right, And so when we're trying to do our type of campaign politics, it's not one size fits all. It is essentially we need
to know how each of these demographics think. But also given the fact that you know, roughly thirty percent or more, forgetting the figure I apologize, I think it's sixty percent or more of APIs, our first generation immigrants. The immigrant mindset, the immigrant sort of you know, attitude is different than a person who's been here for generations, who may not
even know their ancestral history. And it's because because of that specific dynamic that I think is largely unique to APIs and also to Latinos to a degree that we need to know the mindset of you know, each generation in our community. And once we do, we'll have a much better idea on how to test and message to
each levels of those demographics. But you know, no other demographic really has to go through the level of detail, through the level of nuance that we do because of this Frankenstein term, if you will, right, and because we would be doing our own people a disservice trying to say, yeah, you know, there's one API message and it is this
and it will work on everybody. And I think unfortunately a lot of campaigns who don't have the time or the intellectual, you know, curiosity, that they just want to appeal with one message because you know, and I think to their detriment in the end. Given that a lot of districts that are battleground districts in Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, a lot of places that are going to be the current and the future battlegrounds in the United
States of America. I can't forget our friends in Texas too that, you know, unless we get to that level of nuance, we're going to be missing out on tens of thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands of votes. And that's where all this where these elections local, state, federal are going to be decided.
Let me ask you this, vern because it's something that you know that I am kind of battling with as I delve into conversations with folks in twenty twenty four, which is that while we you know, various organizations and movements make plans to win, right, I think that the stakes of losing in twenty twenty four are the highest that they have ever been, And I wonder, you know, while I do believe and wholeheartedly agree with you, you have plenty of time to focus on the top of
the ticket. I think it's much more important to do the ground game in local and state and city elections. What do you find will be the recourse if Republicans who we know are racist, these you know, Christian nationalism that this takes hold. What does the recourse look like for a community that was made a target right during COVID by the president, former president of the United States, by an entire party. What is that? What is you know?
I'm just curious as to the fear level and threat level that you that you foresee.
I mean, it is what we all experience collectively as a nation between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty on steroids. Yeah, I mean, I was listening to twenty year prior podcasts. You had mentioned that, and common knowledge in the news was that Trump admitted that on day one he will be a dictator for only one day apparently, but we know his track record, and so what does he planned
on doing? I think it was the week prior days prior week prior to the October seventh attack in Israel, Donald Trump said that he was going to enact another Muslim ban. This was even before what had happened. So now he has further fodder that he's going to use to terrorize the people of color of our country. He's going to terrorize the LGBTQ community, he's going to terrorize poor people. He's going to terrorize anybody that is not
of you know, Anglo heritage and of Christian faith. We know that, and it's going to be worse because they've already started collecting binders of people that you know, have drunk the kool aid, but have you know, have not left him, right, A lot of his former cabinet, a lot of his former political appointees have left him. A lot of his supporters have left him. So that's why they're developing these binders full of people that are as bad,
if not worse. There was somewhat of a you know, to a degree like some folks in his last administration that we're trying to temper his craziness. Yeah right, and we're not going there anymore. They've already let those quotes out. And you think it's bad enough where you've had some tempering authority in the last administration. Without those restraints in another administration, we are all doomed. Yeah, And and it almost seems hyperbolic to say, yes, this is the most
important election of our lifetime. But I mean, I hope it's obvious that given you his words, which we have only heard part of because we're in maybe not tuning into Truth Social and Fox News on a daily basis, but it's all there for you know, folks to see. But once the nomination becomes secure, once we start ticking down these caucuses and primaries on the Republican side, it's going to become much more mainstream and we're going to hear about it on a daily basis. And maybe we
just needed to break from all this batshit crazy stuff. Yeah, yeah, I certainly did. I mean, how much can.
Person can you take? Yeah, But at the end of the day.
Right, well, you know, whether you want to hear it or not, you're going to see it on Business and News. You're going to see it on you know, even the most you know, uh uh, it might be on like if you're watching you know, the outdoor channel, it's going to be on the outdoor channel. It's going to be on every channel known to man because we won't be able to escape it.
Yeah, you know, with the minute that we have left, please tell people how they can get involved with AAPI Victory Alliance, you know, how keep up with what is going on and how they support.
Thank you so much for the opportunity. You can visit API Victory Alliance dot com, sign up for our newsletter. We're very easy to find on social through the same channels, and I would say, at the very least sign up for our newsletters because I think what we're really focused on this year is getting out ways that if you are even inkling to spend five minutes a day, five minutes a week to do a text bank, to do a phone bank, to donate money, whatever you're able to do,
you know it's going to be full steam ahead. We're going to need everybody in this election to really kind of fight back. And I hope that your listeners come and visit because or do something, you know, whether it's API or not, because we are really are going to see armageddon this time around. It's going to be worse.
We won't have the I think certain tools in our tool belt that we had last time around, and so we're going to get everybody to fight, state, local, national, It's it's it's really gonna I can't say this enough. I feel like I'm saying the sky is falling, because from my vantage point, it really is. It looks like Donald Trump has secured the nomination. It's locked in, and now we have to get ready for what's next.
One hundred percent Varunicour, thank you so much for making the time to join wok F really appreciate you, and we'll check in with you as the calendar ticks down. That is it for me today, dear friends on wok app. As always, power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.